Comparing the somites of an embryo with teeth impressions on a piece of gum.

1.  Introduction

The Qur’an mentions that human development passes through a number of distinct stages.[1] These stages are descriptive of the embryo’s external appearance and have been assigned the following names:

And We (God) created man^[2] from a quintessence (gentle extraction) of clay. We then placed him as a nutfah (drop) in a place of settlement, firmly fixed (i.e. the womb). Then We made the drop into an ‘alaqah (clinging form), and then We changed the clinging form into a mudghah (chewed-like form), then We made out of that chewed-like form, izam (skeleton, bones), then We clothed the bones with lahm (muscles, flesh), then We (ansha’ nahu), caused him to grow and come into being and attain the definitive (human) form. Blessed be God, the Perfect creator. 

Surah Al-Mu’minoon (The Believers) 23: 12-14

This article focuses on the term mudghah مُضْغَةً – the third stage of human prenatal development according to the Qur’an. This article is based on a lecture delivered by Dr. Keith L. Moore at the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA (1990) titled Embryology in the Qur’an and the book Human Development as Described in the Qur’an and Sunnah (1994).

2.   The Mudghah Stage

Figure 1. Photograph of embryo at the end of the ‘alaqah stage (age 24 to 25 days). Ten pairs of the 13 pairs of somites are easily recognized, but the embryo is still relatively straight and has a leech-like appearance. (Source: The Kyoto Collection).

The embryo at 24-25 days is finishing the ‘alaqah stage (Figure 1).  It changes into the mudghah stage at 26-27 days. The transformation from ‘alaqah to mudghah is in fact very rapid, and during the last day or two of the ‘alaqah stage, the embryo is beginning to develop some of the characteristics of the mudghah, e.g. the somites begin to appear and become a distinct feature of this stage (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Drawings of embryos during the fourth week. A, B, C, Lateral views of the embryos, showing 16, 27, and 33 somites respectively. A, The embryo in the last day of the ‘alaqah stage. B and C, Embryos in the beginning of the mudghah stage. (Source: The Developing Human, 4th Ed, 1988).

This rapid transformation is described in the Qur’an by the use of the conjunction fa ﻓ (“then, with no delay”). The word fa indicates a quick sequence of events:

then () We changed the ‘alaqah (علقة) into a mudghah (مُضْغَةً) (Surah 23:14)

3.  The meaning of the term Mudghah

The Qur’an mentions the term muḍghah مُضْغَةً as the third stage of human prenatal development. The word muḍghah according to linguistic Arabic dictionaries has several meanings. The first meaning is “something that has been chewed by the teeth”[3,6]. A second meaning is incorporated in the derived meaning (ﻤﺿﻎ ﺍﻻﻤﻮﺭ) muḍagh al-umūr which means “the small substances.”[4] A third meaning of muḍghah, mentioned by some Qur’anic commentators, is “a piece of meat of a size that can be chewed.”[5]

4.   Description of the term Mudghah

When choosing terms for the stages in embryonic development, the term should be related to the appearance and the main internal features of the embryo. Therefore, the term mudghah should apply with the shape of a substance that the teeth have chewed, according to the first meaning we have given. The appropriateness of the use of the term mudghah has been indicated in modern embryology. It has been determined that after the formation of the embryo and the placenta, the embryo receives it nutrients and energy. Thus the growth process increases rapidly. The bodily masses, called somites, from which the bones and muscle of the back will be formed, start to appear. Due to the multitude of the bead-like structures or somites present, the embryo has the appearance of a substance that has been imprinted by teeth.

The application of the term mudghah in describing the processes of this period are described in the following sections.

4.1   DESCRIPTION OF MUDGHAH AS “SOMETHING THAT HAS BEEN CHEWED BY THE TEETH”

• The appearance of the somites or “imprints” changes continuously, just as the teeth imprint changes on a chewed substance with each act of chewing. The embryo changes its overall shape, but the structures derived from the somites remain. Just as a substance acquires furrows, swellings and a corrugated surface as it is being chewed, so does the appearance of the embryo (Figure 3 and Figure 4).

Figure 3. Photograph of an embryo around 28-30 days, during the mudghah stage of development. The embryo has a characteristic C-shaped curvature similar to the curved appearance of a substance which has been chewed extensively. The heart prominence is easily recognized. The ventrally-curled tail, with its somites, is a characteristic feature of this stage. Indentations are identified between somites, and with these indentations, the embryo resembles a chewed substance in its external appearance. (Source: Langman’s Medical Embryology.)

• The embryo turns in its position due to the modifications in its center of gravity with new tissue formation, similar to the turning of a substance with chewing.

• Just as a chewed substance becomes curled before being swallowed, so does the back of the embryo become curved.

Figure 4. Comparing the appearance of an embryo at the mudghah stage with a piece of gum that has been chewed. A, an embryo at around 26 days showing several pairs of bead-like somites. (The Developing Human, Moore and Persaud, 5th ed., p. 79.) B, a piece of gum that has been shaped like an embryo and then chewed. Note how the teeth marks on the chewed substance resemble somites of the embryo. The somites represent the beginnings or primordia of the vertebrae.[7]

As for the second meaning of “small substances” for mudghah, the embryo is approximately 1.0cm in length at this stage, and therefore very small. Thus the meaning “the small substances” applies in the sense of the embryo’s size. This is so because all human organs form during the mudghah stage as small buds.

4.3    DESCRIPTION OF MUDGHAH AS ” A PIECE OF MEAT OF A SIZE THAT CAN BE CHEWED”

The third meaning of mudghah as “a piece of meat of a size that can be chewed”, given by some Qur’ānic commentators, applies again in regard to the size of the embryo. At this stage, the embryo is approximately 1.0cm in length, and this is approximately the size of a substance that would be chewed. The preceding stage of ‘alaqah, for example, is not a size to be chewed, since it is not more than 3.5mm in length.

As the somites form, they are undifferentiated, but they quickly differentiate into cells which will develop into various organs. Some of these organs will form in the mudghah stage, and some will form in later stages. The mudghah stage ends by the end of the 6th week. The following Qur’anic statement mentions these facts:

“Then out of a chewed-like substance partly differentiated and partly undifferentiated.” Surah Al-Ḥajj (The Pilgrimage) 22:5

The Qur’an specifies that the bones form after the mudghah stage and then the muscles cover the bones. The description is consistent with modern embryology.

Related articles

• Embryology in the Qur’an by Dr. Keith Moore
• Embryology in the Qur’an: The ‘Alaqah Stage
• Embryology in the Qur’an: Bone and Muscle Development
• Human Development during the first 40 days

A short video clip from “Embryology in the Qur’an” – a lecture delivered by Dr. Keith Moore at the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA (8th May 1990). Dr. Keith L. Moore describes the term mudghah – the third stage of embryonic development according to the Qur’an.

Related articles

• Embryology in the Qur’an: The Mudghah Stage
• Embryology in the Qur’an: The ‘Alaqah Stage
• Embryology in the Qur’an – Correlation Studies with Modern Embryology
• Embryology in the Qur’an: Human Development in the first 40 days

And in this second video clip, Dr. Keith L. Moore explains how he and other scientists got involved in the area of embryology in the Qur’an:

For more information see the following article:
Embryology in the Qur’an – Correlation Studies with Modern Embryology

Related articles

• Embryology in the Qur’an – Correlation Studies with Modern Embryology
• Video: Embryology in the Qur’an with Drs. Persaud, Moore and Johnson

Human embryos 41 and 44 days

This paper is concerned with the period of prenatal development after the 42nd day. The 7th week of development marks a time of several eventful changes in the external and internal features of the fetus. The paper also reviews the hadith of the Prophet which describes the embryo after the 42nd day (narrated in Saheeh Muslim):

When 42 nights have passed over the conceptus, God sends an angel to it, who shapes it (into human form) and makes its hearing, sight, muscles and bones…

Download:  Human Development after the 42nd day

Related articles

• Embryology in the Qur’an: Human Development during the first 40 days
• Embryology in the Qur’an: Fetus acquires a skeleton
• Video: Embryology in the Qur’an – Bone and Muscle development
• Embryology in the Qur’an – Correlation Studies with Modern Embryology

The Human Embryology Animations site is hosted by Indiana University, USA. The site was lasted updated around 2008 and requires Flash and Quicktime to view animations. Visit: http://www.indiana.edu/~anat550/embryo_main/

embryology.ch is an online course in embryology for medicine students developed by the universities of Freiburg, Lausanne and Bern with the support of the Swiss Virtual Campus

Three Swiss university departments of morphology (see Credits page) have co-operated to produce a web-based course in human embryology for medical students at the preclinical stage of their education. Web-based training (WBT) lends itself admirably to the teaching of embryology, which forms an important part of a medical students’ education. Moreover it permits the display of movement and three dimensionality, both of which are necessary to understand the process of development. The concept of active learning embraces the view that learning is more effective when students become actively engaged in the subject matter and take more responsibility in the learning process.

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3D MR Microscopy of Human Development by Kyoto & Tsukuba Universities, Japan.

This web demonstrates 3D MR microscope images of 1,204 chemically fixed human embryos acquired with a super-parallel MR microscope developed in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Laboratory at the University of Tsukuba, Japan.

The 1,204 chemically fixed human embryos were important parts of the Kyoto Collection of Human Embryos, which were collected from 1961 to 1974.

Click here to visit the site: 3D MR Microscopy of Human Development

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Time-lapse simulation of human embryo development from post-ovulatory day 24 to 56 (Carnegie stages 11 – 23), based on optical photographs of human embryos from the National Museum of Health and Medicine. By Brad Smith at the University of Michigan, School of Art & Design – brdsmith@umich.edu.

Notice how the embryo in the early stages resembles a leech.

See  The Multi-Dimensional Human Embryo and http://www-personal.umich.edu/~brdsmith/

Related articles

• Embryology in the Qur’an – Correlation Studies with Modern Embryology (islampapers.com)

Presentation by Dr. Keith L. Moore at the International Conference on Scientific Signs of the Qur’an and Sunnah in Cairo, Egypt, 1989.

Keith Moore in Cairo, Egypt, 1989

The intensive studies of the Qur’an and Hadith in the last four years have revealed a system of classifying human embryos that is amazing since it was recorded in the seventh century A.D…. the descriptions in the Qur’an cannot be based on scientific knowledge in the seventh century…

Related articles

• Embryology in the Qur’an – Correlation Studies with Modern Embryology (islampapers.com)
• Video: Embryology in the Qur’an with Drs. Persaud, Moore and Johnson (islampapers.com)

This is a video created by YouTube user lebo2196: ”New images have been found revealing amazing truths behind verses in the Qur’an that depict the embryonic development. The Qur’an is said to be the word of God ( Allah ) and such miraculous phenomena are used to authenticate this statement. The Qur’an claims that the embryo is an “Alaqah” which means either a blood clot, suspended or leech like structure. We put this statement to the test.”

FURTHER READING

• Embryology in the Qur’an: The ‘Alaqah Stage
• Prof. Keith Moore describes the alaqah or “leech” like appearance of the embryo
• Does the embryo resemble a leech in this photo?
• Surely the Qur’anic ‘Alaqah (the leech-like stage) is easily observed with the naked eye?
• A Scientist’s Interpretation of References to Embryology in the Qur’an